A Promise
by Ramowen
Summary: Sarah takes care of Toby while it thunders outside- and he won't stop crying. Be ware, NOT a nice little fairytale! PG-13 for implied violence.


Disclaimer: all the usual suspects- er, I mean 'applies'.  
  
This story is short yet far from sweet. So watch it people, this is a -dark- one that has nothing to do with my Diamond Tears series. Just one of those things you can't get out of your mind unless you actually write it down.  
  
PG-13 for implied violence.  
  
Enjoy  
Ramowen  
  
  
  
A Promise  
  
The storm was howling, rain battered the windows, the lid of a trashcan danced clanking and banging trough the street.   
  
It was so dark outside, so dark.   
  
Lightening crackled, harsh light blackened the shadows.  
  
Toby cried silently, too tired and too scared to make his moans truly heard. His heart-wrenching sobs however would not stop, as if the child knew nothing else in his life but this endless grief.  
  
"Oh Toby stop it!" Sarah said impatiently. She pushed Lancelot aside and lifted her now two-year-old sibling from his bed. He still slept in his parent's room.  
  
The girl pulled the boy up to her shoulder and folded her arms around the tiny body. She paced the room, hoping against hope that the movement would still the child. For a second or two it seemed to help.  
  
Thunder shook the house, drummed the doors, crashed against the temples of Sarah's aching head. Downstairs another kind of crash was heard, The crash of a plate fragmentized to dust on the tiled kitchen floor. The shrieking voice of the stepmother and the loud harsh shouts of the father. A chair was shoved out of the way and fell.  
  
"Just like before- but worse!" muttered Sarah.  
  
Another sharp flash of lightening and bangs of thunder, so loud the storm was practically above their very house now. The startled little boy moved in Sarah's arms, shrieked with the movement and cried a little louder, but not much.  
  
"O, knock it off- knock it off!"  
  
Sarah held her brother at arms length and looked at him with desperate questioning eyes.  
  
"I can't do it again, can I? Would he take you twice?"  
  
More harsh words drifted up from below. Sarah could not make out what the argument was about. Holding the boy like this, wondering if she dared say the words again, Sarah got a glimpse of herself in the mirror. Looking at her likeness, if only for such a short moment, made her own eyes sting. She pulled the boy against herself and hid her tears against his soft little body. Making sure she held him not too tight. He unconsciously reached for her hair and pulled.  
  
"Auch!" Sarah said and untangled the small hand from her locks. She stared at the little arm and rubbed it gently, but the boy pulled away and squealed.  
  
Sarah shivered and moaned herself now, her headache growing worse. Her pace agitated and frightened. Another loud bang from below and another crash of now broken plates or cups-  
  
"No more," she whispered. "Please, no more."  
  
Clutching the boy against her chest, she whispered the infamous words: "O God Toby- I whish the goblins would take you away, right now."  
  
  
The lightning, the thunder, the dark, the silence.  
  
  
Sarah was momentarily blinded by the utter darkness. The whole house seemed to hold its breath and it was silent, below.  
  
Sarah backed against the wall. She could hear them, scurrying about. How they opened and closed the drawers, skittered under the blankets of the bed to the floor. And jumped Toby's cot to find it empty. They neared her from all sides- why not, she knew them. His Goblins.  
  
"Mine, mine, mine."  
"Give 'im to us love- you said the words."  
One added in singsong "She said the wo-ords, she said the wo-ords".  
  
In the eyes of the goblins Sarah saw an evil glee, a sparkle of menace. They moved awkwardly about the room, and threatened to come at her en masse. But they seemed also happy and self-assured- funny even.  
  
"Get lost- get away from him!" she shouted and kicked the nearest little troll away. He bumped against the ones behind him and they all fell in a messy heap, with their high pitched mocking laughter and giggles somehow a comfort to the cowering girl.  
  
Then, as both feared and expected, the white owl flapped its frantic wings against the French windows that opened on their own violation. The majestic bird dove into the room, swirled around and back again. Another crash of lightning and more raging thunder. In this light he stood. Jareth, the ominous Goblin King had come to claim his prize.  
  
Hands on the windowsill, dressed in black and his cape swirling with the wind he glared at Sarah. She looked at him, still clutching her brother close, the goblins disappearing around the room.   
  
So much the same in all his splendor and majesty, so dark and alluring and so much as she remembered him. Until she met the mismatched eyes.  
  
Jareth looked down at her with raised chin ad a sardonic smile. Highly amused with the surprise that of all people it was -Sarah- who offered her sibling -twice-. The only one who had ever beaten him at his own game. What twist of fate brought the silly girl and the boy-child under his spell again? What was her -game-? Yet, he would play it. Till the -end- this time. This time, neither would escape- neither!  
  
"Goblin King?" she whispered.  
"What? What was that?" Jareth held his hand behind his ear to hear. "Ah, so you -do- remember me. How flattering."  
Sarah did not react to his quip. Jareth cocked one brow and towered over Sarah and her brother and chuckled.  
"Give -me- the child." Another low chuckle. "Oh come now Sarah. What is said is said. Although I do confess to be at al loss why what was said has been said -again-. After all the trouble you went through last time to get him back."  
  
Nothing, no reaction. Nothing more than a tremble that ran trough the girl. Fright? His beautiful feisty Sarah, who had beaten his illusions, fought his monsters- Who had rejected -him- She sat there on the cold floor cowering behind a babe? Something was very wrong here.  
  
"You-"  
  
"Yes?" he drawled, kneeling in front of the girl to appear so much closer. She stared away from him, did not meet his eyes. Gently he touched her chin with one gloved hand to make her turn her gaze, but she pushed him away.  
  
"You -do- take care of your goblins- don't you? You don't really let them get hurt, do you?"  
  
Jarreth balked and sat on his knees, dumbfounded. What a totally nonsensical question. Of course he did not 'hurt' his subjects. Well, apart from the occasional kick he gave them if they were in his way. Or a stinking bath in the bog.  
  
Icily he said "Contrary to popular belief, my dear, I do not derive pleasure from the physical discomfort of my subjects. Your brother will be a goblin- not harmed!"  
  
Sarah gave Toby one final hug. "Take him then." And she pushed the boy into Jareth's arms.  
  
"Just like that?" he asked, baffled. Sarah had turned to the wall and seemed to make herself a part of it. She had started crying now and refused to look up."  
  
"Just take him and go! Please." She cried. Jareth did not move. He held the boy gingerly, but he was too shocked to stand and simply leave.   
  
Sarah -wanted-, really truly wanted the boy taken away. And it was not some heartless decision of a spoiled brat either, the girl was truly heartbroken over the loss of the boy. Her shoulders shook from crying, grieving a true loss.  
  
She had not called out to him to play their game again. She would not come. She simply wanted her brother away and nothing more.   
  
Nothing.  
  
Jareth stood, unable to comprehend or comfort the broken girl at his feet. He would probably never see her again.   
  
Suddenly he narrowed his eyes at her and anger distorted his features. Was she using him again? What kind of twisted ploy could this be? He stepped away, into the light of his own world and held the boy a bit tighter, hesitantly. One foot still in -her- world. The boy already taken away to the other and only a dream could cross.  
  
The child shrieked in agony. Shocked the Goblin King stared at Toby. Gently holding him up on one arm he touched the boy's ribcage with his free hand- and saw pain in the child's eyes. He rolled up the Toby's shirt and gasped. The whole of the boy's left side was blotched with ugly yellow and purple marks, as if somebody had -kicked- him. In the sunlight Jareth saw scorch-marks on the child's chubby arms. Small red and broken punctures- as if somebody had pressed a burning cigarette against the tender flesh. Jarreth closed his eyes- and heard that soft grief stricken voice again 'You -do- take care of your Goblins' don't you?'  
  
Better a Goblin than exposed to tortures like this? O Great Oberon-  
  
Better alone to take the blows than allowing the boy to receive any? How had he dared to think her weak! And if their caretakers thought so little of the youngest child, what would they not do to -her-, especially when the other was missing! Gently Jareth kissed the boy's forehead, casting a healing spell over him and finally allowing him sleep. One foot still in her world, the Goblin King turned.  
  
"Are you sure you do not wish to fight over your brother?" Jarreth asked softly, graciously kneeling at the girl's side.  
  
With dull eyes Sarah looked up at him- she had said no- she had given him Toby- what more could he want?  
  
"I don't understand-"  
  
Jareth smiled sadly: "You never did."  
  
Downstairs, the screaming had begun. Sarah heard a dull thud and her stepmother screamed again. Later she would beg. Later still she, like Sarah's own mother, would learn to keep still. It was over so much quicker if you made no sound at all.  
  
But this second wife had not learned yet. She still fought, and screamed and kicked. And if nothing worked against her husband, than there were other ways not to be powerless.  
  
"They -don't- deserve you! Either of you!" Jarreth hissed.  
  
At his anger, Sarah lifted her head and faced her erstwhile adversary, but only with a sideways glance. Shifting the sleeping Toby a little, Jareth made room for his right had to cup Sarah's chin and make her face him. His startled eyes grew wider, but she did not resist. From brow to cheek, Sarah's face had been blackened by a man's fist, and even now she tried to hide the mark as if the blow had been her fault, her shame.  
  
"Oh my brave Sarah- why did you not call out for me?"  
  
Sarah's eyes grew hard. "For you! I destroyed you-" her eyes threatened to fill with tears again.  
  
"Hardly my dear- you destroyed our game, never me."  
  
Still holding on to the sleeping boy, still cupping her chin, Jareth lightly touched his forehead to hers. "I promised you I would be there for you..."  
  
Still not moving- and not moving -away-, she said "That was a dream".  
  
Jareth chuckled lightly: "I promised you your dreams."  
  
Sarah closed her eyes as if in pain. "But you already have my brother- I have given him to you."  
  
Jareth swallowed. Moving his face a little upward so his nose brushed alongside hers and he felt her shiver. His lips gently caressed her forehead- he did not kiss her, but whispered in a slightly menacing voice: "If you fight me this time- If you fail -this- time, I will never, ever allow you to go home again. You will never see your parents back again. I promise you."  
  
Jareth let go of the girl's chin, breathing the scent of her hair, trailed with his hand the blemish on her face and allowed her to feel it disappear.  
  
Sarah still did not move. "You sound so horrible- you always did."  
  
"I always meant what I said."  
  
Sarah sat back now, her eyes clear and her composure calm. She looked at her sleeping brother and frowned.  
  
"The Fay cannot work metal, my sweet. Nor steel, gold or silver. It is not in our nature."  
  
"And so?"  
  
With his free hand Jareth indicated his pendant. "You humans have such lovely workmanship in these matters- why waste that on Goblins. There is a very lively community of smiths and craftsmen in my Labyrinth. I think Toby will feel quite at ho-"  
  
Sarah placed one small finger against Jareth's lips and made him stop talking with a smile. There was a fire in his mismatched eyes that made something shiver twist inside her- but she had no answer for it. Gently the Goblin King took her hand in his and kissed the tips of her fingers.  
  
"You keep surprising me, my sweet."  
  
Jareth helped Sarah on her feet. She looked worried at the door of the room.  
  
"Tonight I shall cast a spell over your stepmother, giving her the good sense to leave this man and to go to your worlds law. Right now they seem to have exhausted their supply of table-wear. He will not beat her again."  
  
"Thank you.."  
  
Jareth made gracious little bow and waved Sarah through the French doors. She found herself back on the hill with the tree and the clock, overlooking the Labyrinth.  
  
"You have thirteen ours from now, my Sarah."  
  
"Your Sarah?" she joked.  
  
Jareth smiled ever so slightly. "Come," he said reaching out to her. Behind the Goblin King the hands on the face of the clock spun like mad. At this rate, she had only seconds to make it to the Castle Behind the Goblin City to save herself and Toby. She smiled up at the King and took his hand.  
  
  



End file.
